1893 text
[From the 2 January 1660 entry] Pepys constantly visited “Will’s” about this time; but this could not be the famous coffee-house in Covent Garden, because he mentions visiting there for the first time, February 3rd, 1663-64. It was most probably the house of William Joyce, who kept a place of entertainment at Westminster (see Jan. 29th).
This text comes from a footnote on a diary entry in the 1893 edition edited by Henry B. Wheatley.
4 Annotations
First Reading
Phil • Link
The map location above is very approximate.
Philip Somervail • Link
Will’s
“Though the old institutional ceremonies and celebrations of pre-Commonwealth times, such as the annual dinner on St Thomas’ Day, had lapsed, the young clerks [Pepys, Symons, Luellin, Hawley, etc] made up for it by a constant round of sly entertainments of their own. They had their weekly club at Wood’s in suburban Pall Mall, and could be found any time of the day, when they could escape from their professional duties, at Will’s, Harper’s or the ‘Dog’, or any other of the drinking houses of Westminster and Whitehall.” [(From ’Samuel Pepys, The Man in the Making’ (1933), by Arthur Bryant (1967 edition, p.48)]
Martin K. Foys • Link
Will's might also be Wilkinson's Cookshop, on King Street, close to Sam's house in Axe Yard. Tomalin mentions Wilkinson's as a place Pepys liked to frequent and drink with his "clubbers" during the early part of his clerking career (67).
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pepys constantly visited “Will’s” in 1660 -- it may be the house of William Joyce, who kept a place of entertainment at Westminster at that time (see Jan. 29 1660).